The SHoWLE Board of Directors adopted the following statement in support of the LGBTQ+ community and to oppose bigotry. This statement can be found in our Policies and Resolution page of the website.
The Board of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie voted on January 21, 2025, to “sign on” to a statement issued by a majority of the secular, Humanist, and freethought groups in the country affirming our commitment to support and protect the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in this country.
In a statement titled “Statement from American Atheist, Humanist, Freethought, and Secular Groups Affirming Commitment to Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights” 16 national secular groups affirmed:
“We will not permit religious extremists to foment a moral panic, encourage harassment or violence, and enact dangerous policies that seek to force LGBTQ+ Americans generally—and trans Americans in particular—out of public life and out of existence. Nor will we sit silently or ignore when the talking points, misinformation, and outright fabrications of anti-LGBTQ+ extremists are laundered and given a veneer of legitimacy or acceptability by those who hold themselves out as voices of reason or science.”
The SHoWLE Board agrees 100% with the statement and we intend that our group will continue to be a welcoming place for all people no matter who you are or who you love. Our Humanist values demand it.
We need more compassion and understanding and much less irrational hysteria. We need laws and policies based on data and actual reality and not biases, religious indoctrination, or tabloid anecdotes.
SHoWLE also will not tolerate bigotry from our state legislature, general community, or our membership. We will call out that bigotry when needed. We will not support or work with any group that supports bigotry of any kind especially toward the LGBTQ+ community.
Some people have said that recent attacks on the Trans community have been only about discussing science and biology and that by not allowing that discussion we are censoring science. We reject that argument.
Free speech arguments should never be used to justify hurting people and whether a group should have basic dignity, and worth should never be debated.
No one should live in fear for simply existing.